The project, by Tohoku Gakuin University student Yuka Kudo, found that the drivers were convinced they were picking up genuine fares in each incident, running their meters only to find their passengers had disappeared upon reaching their destinations.

Columbia Pictures

As yet there have been no sightings of phantom cab drivers, a la Ghostbusters 1984

Kudo said: “Young people feel strong chagrin [at their deaths] when they cannot meet the people they love.

“As they want to convey their bitterness, they may have chosen taxis… as a medium to do so.”

Some 19,000 people were killed after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent a tsunami raging towards Japan in 2011.